There once was a lady at the Makati Medical Center who was terminally ill with cancer. Doctors advised her and her husband to go home and accept her fate as no medical treatment can help her at that stage of her illness. She prayed to God and vowed to spend the rest of her life serving Him if she got well. Amazingly, she did! Her name was Fanny Diploma and from her miraculous healing, the Sto. Niño de Paz Chapel - more commonly known as the Greenbelt Chapel - was born. Coming from a wealthy family, Fanny and her husband, Atty. Nordy Diploma decided to build a chapel as thanksgiving for her new lease on life. She noticed that in the Makati Central Business District, many religious sects have established their churches except for the Catholic Church. They approached the Ayalas and offered to build a church if a site was available for them in the largely still undeveloped CBD. After having seen the master plan, Fanny pointed at the center of the lagoon, a very unlikely place to build anything. The Ayalas agreed on condition that nothing permanent would be built on the site - that anytime it was needed, the chapel can be removed. The couple then called their architect, Enrique Dizon. For this very special project, Architect Dizon called the young Topy Vasquez, his former staff who was at that time working for Architect Gabriel Formoso. Given the condition that the structure be temporary, the architects designed a steel-framed dome clad with staggered 6mm thick marine plywood (the Diplomas owned one of the largest plywood manufacturing companies at the time), waterproofing, and paint. Contrary to popular belief, the Greenbelt Chapel is not made of thin shell concrete and was not designed by Ar. Leandro Locsin. According to Ar. Vasquez, the chapel was also designed so that in case the land owners decided to assert their right over the 'temporary' chapel's site, it can be lifted and moved by helicopter. They worked on the design together and Ar. Vasquez fondly recalls buying cheap plastic basketball from the local market to build scaled model studies of the church. The original design called for a dome that would seem to float over water and a basement where the sacristy and offices would be housed. Ventilation for the basement will be underneath the concrete cantilevers, just above the water line. But due to budget constraints, the basement was scrapped and small extensions at the sides and back of the dome were built for the sacristy and offices. During the construction, another young architect by the name of Ramon Orlina approached Architect Dizon and proposed glass sculptures to become part of the chapel. Dizon agreed to the proposal only if Orlina further studied glass sculpture techniques in Europe - at Dizon's expense! It was surely worth the wait as the cross outside the chapel and the altar table with its tabernacle that seems to miraculously rise out of nowhere are now priceless works of the master sculptor, complementing the simple yet powerful architecture of the chapel. The chapel was completed in 1983 and was dedicated by Jaime Cardinal Sin with Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Atty. Nordy and Fanny Diploma. Fanny's temporary chapel has outlived her. Through her, hundreds of thousands of busy office employees and working people right in the heart of Makati's Central Business District have been touched by the hand of God. Parishes from around the country have also benefited from donations collected during mass at the Greenbelt Chapel. During the Christmas season, the Greenbelt Park is filled with Yuletide carols as residents and office workers attend the 5am Simbang Gabi at the Sto. Niño de Paz Chapel. May the love and peace of the Child Jesus be with us all this Christmas! [Published on the United Architects of the Philippines Makati Chapter SKYLINE Newsletter, December 2009 based on the personal accounts of Ar. Topy Vasquez].
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AuthorJWHermogenes works with Ar. Topy Vasquez, founder of TVAP. ArchivesCategories |